The Myth of National Defense by Hans-Hermann Hoppe

Author:Hans-Hermann Hoppe [Hoppe, Hans-Hermann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-945466-37-4
Publisher: The Ludwig von Mises Institute
Published: 2003-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

7

Privateering and National Defense: Naval Warfare for Private Profit

Larry J. Sechrest

Hans-Hermann Hoppe has argued that “the idea of collective security is a myth that provides no justification for the modern state” and “all security is and must be private.”1 Furthermore, Hoppe makes it abundantly clear that when referring to security, he means protection against not only the small-scale depredations of the common criminal but also the massive aggressions perpetrated by nation-states. The claim that all legitimate defense functions can and must be privately supplied flies in the face of certain economic doctrines that are almost universally accepted. Almost all economists declare that there are some goods or services that will be provided in suboptimal quantities—or not provided at all—by private, profit-seeking firms. These “public goods” allegedly bring benefits to all in the society, whether or not any given individual bears his or her fair share of their cost. This “free riding” by some persons diminishes the profit incentive motivating private suppliers. Therefore, to make sure that such highly valued goods are provided, the government serves as the principal, or often the only, supplier, and taxes all the citizens in order to finance the production and distribution of the good.

There has been spirited debate at times about which exact goods or services should be included in the category of public goods. At least one, however, is almost invariably included: national defense. Even some otherwise quite radical thinkers have found it at least plausible that national defense cannot be effectively supplied by the private sector.

One might take David D. Friedman as a notable example. Friedman, despite thinking that “it may be possible to defend against foreign nations by voluntary means,” nevertheless grants that tax-financed, government defense forces could prove to be the only way to confront foreign aggression.2 In fact, at one point, he explicitly describes national defense as a public good.3

The purpose here is to challenge just that sort of statement. The attack on national defense as a public good that must be provided by the state will be two-pronged. The first part, the briefer of the two, will raise theoretical questions about public goods in general and national defense in particular. The second part will be devoted to a detailed survey of privateering, a form of naval warfare conducted by privately owned ships which lasted from the twelfth century to the nineteenth century. What privateers were, how they operated, the legal customs that grew up around them, how effective they were, how profitable they were, and why they disappeared will all be addressed. The common employment of privateers during wartime will be offered as empirical evidence that defense need not be monopolized by the state.

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